This year we were able to touch 10 slums and working children through urban projects, ten contact points, programmes and activities. This year too IRDT laid special emphasis on expansion of education amongst slum and working children. Through its VARIOUS different projects, it stressed that education can play a significant role in empowering CHILDREN LIFE and in securing a rightful place for them. Besides education, empowerment of child life was also attempted through the activities of life-skill workshops, exposure visits, residential workshops, talent events, rallies, visits to primary health centres, awareness generation on child rights and government services for children through various programmes and activities. Health camps and Primary health centre visits were provided for their health checkups and treatment of common diseases. Activities of parents meeting, stakeholders meeting, and change-makers training were organized to empower students and other community members to seek their involvement in the projects.

For a society to fully realize its potential, it is imperative that all sections contribute to and partake in the development process. Yet, it is increasingly evident that women, who constitute about half of our population, are not fully integrated in the development process. The women’s self-help group and micro-finance initiatives have proved successful in overcoming barriers that have traditionally kept women out from accessing formal financial services, and have helped them improve their statuses in their families and communities. IRDT has developed a self-help group and job creation model that has been critical in empowerment of women. The model draws from both the RURAL and traditional SHG approach to benefit women at the bottom of the pyramid. In our approach, women are mobilized into self help groups, encouraged to save, and open a bank account and encourage internal group borrowing for short term needs. IRDT team assists these women in improving their skills and encourages them to pursue economic activities. This enables them to access formal financial services such as banks or MFIs to fulfil their credit needs to build their businesses. Enterprise development is the first step, but sustainability is also critical. Understanding this gap, IRDT team provides enterprise development training that includes support with business plan development, market linkages, connection to technology, quality control etc. This is often conducted in partnership with elite institutions. Additional training on adult literacy, financial literacy and digital literacy has paved the way to entrepreneurship in other states. We achieved this goal in 2011 and have been moving steadfast since. Our model has grown along with the journey and has been customized based on states. We have further consolidated our work where the thrust of our SHG - job creation programme has evolved and is now working through women’s collectives with the aim to enhance their social, financial and entrepreneurial skills for higher incomes, more financial security and greater bargaining power within their households, markets and communities. The SHGs of IRDT are subsequently federated to enhance the social capital and promote livelihood activities of rural women. These networks have the potential to address gender issues (personal and community level), community development activities, and create and bolster income-generating activities for women, thereby contributing to their social and economic processes of empowerment.

Through the local volunteers we are addressing mother and childcare the issues related to ANC (Antenatal) and PNC (Post-Natal) health care and also importance of nutritional aspect for this we promote back yard kitchen garden activities among our beneficiaries. We also under took climate change related issue and address to the safe guarding the communities indigenous seeds we encourage to grow local varieties in agricultural practices like Samai, Thenai (millets) Ragi, Cholom, Maize etc.